I saw the title and came right to the comments to find this one, not disappointed at all, keep feathering son!

Touch my camera through the fence!

I’m a retired double agent…. Ur done bud

Is your smoking wood close enough to the bottom of the fire grate so that heat from your coal bed can ignite the wood without having to rely on bits and pieces of charcoal to fall onto the big pieces of wood because we know smoldering wood will not create blue smoke ... 650 degrees up to 750 degrees is ideal temperature to create blue smoke.. I'm sorry to say that I don't believe small pieces of charcoal falling on top of larger pieces of cold wood will create a 750 degree fire if the wood isn't up to temperature to create blue smoke . I can create blue smoke on an offset smoker.. Looks like separating the coal bed from the smoking wood seems to be trying to create blue smoke in reverse... 650 up to 750 degrees Fahrenheitwould be the fire temperature inside your firebox not inside your cooking chamber.. several people get that mixed up. I watched Mr Yoder's video putting cold wood into a firebox but he never said anything about preheating the wood to bypass the white smoke stage of a fire but this video was just a dry run.. Lots of people don't know how to create blue smoke .. Should have a video on how to create blue smoke

​@@brucerogers3253what does this have to do with cleaning a smoker?

Phil N Florence You’re right Phil. Big wheels would be a huge improvement. If you notice, I have mind sitting on a piece of plywood so that it doesn’t get stuck in the dirt

Good wheels can cost $200 alone.... Pretty much blow the price point of this smoker

What did you use to add your probe port? I have this pit and want to do the same.

Cilfton I just added a 2 1/2” long pipe nipple 3/4” dia. I was thinking on a 1/2” size but my probes have curve to them and the 3/4” gave me more room. Now since I have around ten cooks on it I can get the temperature up quickly using the I120 and it regulates the temperature perfectly. My only thoughts are I wish it had a larger cook camber. Good luck

How do you relight your leftover charcoal?

I added an expanded metal small box to hold those tumble weeds and I lite three of them with all the doors open until the existing charcoal lites.

David Reynolds Well that’s a heavy burden! But I put up a rib video and I have a butt and a brisket in the fridge right now. Just waiting for the weather to clear up.

I can see easy mods to fix these issues. A threaded cap to seal the grease trap. Remove and drain when you want. A cookie sheet baking inside could also catch drippings. Drain when you're done. As for the charcoal grate. It should work as is but may clog only with too many large pieces. Those can be broken up as you load your charcoal. As is, I'd like to have one.

I think that B&B lump charcoal will slide down that chute fairly well. Large premium lump like Fogo or Jealous Devil will definitely clog the feed chamber.

Get a charcoal basket and remove the fuel grate to catch the leftover charcoal to clear your chute. Then start your new cook with fresh hot coals. You can add the leftover coals back into the chute. Either that or you could introduce a couple of firs starters to the fuel grate....I wouldn't recommend it though.

Patrick Quinn I appreciate it. If you have any questions you can give them a call www.bbquepits.com

MeisterJoghurt93 Vielen Dank

Trueblue2053 Thanks! I appreciate it

Pit controller such as a Fireboard, bbq guru, IQ series. It cuts the time to 30 to 40 min or so which is what you can expect from any smoker. The reason is that to get enough air for a quick start, you have to leave the door open but then you lose a bunch of your heat. The fan on a controller puts enough air in through the ball valve with the door closed and shuts it down so you don't go way over. While you don't really *need* a controller for actual cooking on a gravity feed, it makes the start much faster and easier.

Big Lew BBQ Yeah the fact that it can run anywhere is nice

probably, but id go through the chiminy.

I know right! It was the first thing I seized on. They are made in Mexico. If that is an example of quality control then NO THANKS!

@@kevinfryman7143 he says it's a model

How long before the screwheads rust off, and the inside panels fall off? Next time buy American Made 👍🏻

Green Mountain Grills does the same thing.

Dave Witt 👍🏻

alonzo colbert Gravity in my opinion

Gary Littles Totally depends on the quality of the reverse flow. If it’s good quality, it will produce better flavor than gravity fed. The gravity fed produces better flavor than everything but an offset

But on something small reverse flow would not work Well! You need to have a huge cooker for reverse flow to work well

fretless 5 Good idea

Florian Kett right ! I notched he slipped that in there, what did he say? Danke

@@desmundlighten3603 he said, "now we can start"

I used to do that. Now I only really use the analog thermometer as a relative measurement. I figure out what reading works best and just make sure the thermometer reads the temp that produces the best results. You can get a digital probe to compare. It’s probably a good idea for your own peace of mind if nothing else

CXK You can attach a unit to do that. I’ll be testing one out in the near future

@@MadScientistBBQ are there battery operated airflow control units? I hate having to depend on AC power.

Avi Kaiser Thanks!

@@MadScientistBBQ next time you are in Austin come visit my BBQ joint. Check it out on Instagram twistedbbq. Thanks 😊

Move

Buy in Nevada and drive back

Kevin Holt You can definitely add a fan but are you wondering if it will fit?

@@MadScientistBBQ yes will it fit

By using lump charcoal instead of briquettes, you would be able to seal off the air intake and exhaust to stop the cooking process. It is similar to using a kamado style grill/smoker. Briquettes will smolder much longer, thereby wasting fuel.

handcannon Good idea. I’ll include that in a future video

Check Academy website mid August.

@@AndrewFromTexas any idea what the price point is going to be? I can't find an OCBP website to even find out any info on these.

Facts

Bob Dayton It can but it can also get caught in the chute

Aiden Harris Sure that’s something I’d be interested in doing in the future

Anthony D Low airflow and insulation keep it pretty even. The slow moving air allows the heat to distribute pretty well

@@MadScientistBBQ I agree, that concept is similar to how a kamado works. Since there is low air flow, you get a cooking chamber full of hot air with consistent temperature. There may be a .5° degree variance .

I don't have this exact smoker, but do use one like it. One problem I see is the charcoal grate spacing is too small. Every hour or so reach in with a insulated glove and jiggle the grate. This will drop the ashes and won't effect the cook chamber temperature. I also do this when adding wood. It helps the wood start smoldering. I also use a ash tray made of 16 ga. which makes cleanup easier.

Are you using Kingsford charcoal? I've heard people saying it ashes too much for this pit. B&B or Royal Oak are supposed to have less ash issues or lump.

I bought one of these about a month ago. I seasoned it with briquettes, but for my first cook, I used lump charcoal and had no problems with the feed in the chimney. I did give the grate a slight tap every time I was putting in some wood chunks, but did not have any issues. Way less ash, too...the briquettes ash was suffocating any wood chunks for smoking...didn't have that issue with lump charcoal. Another option would just be scraping out the ash as you go...try lump charcoal, though...I actually made the best brisket I've ever done on my first cook and I still make a few mistakes and am learning about the pit...

Outlaw jjSmith They have it on academy sports or you could call them with questions www.bbquepits.com

Soft-Top Convertible Metalhead I’ve never had too many smokers, just not enough room

I ordered one from Academy as well (because of the price), and received it about a week ago. Same story, scratches pretty much all over the rubber on the handles had been banged up so the metal was showing through on the ends. Otherwise not in bad shape. I called customer service and they offered me 15% off so I said sure. My big issue is getting this thing up to temp. I was able to get it up to 500 degrees for the burn in (after about 2 hours) and was able to bring it down to 225 fairly easily, and did an eye of the round roast beef for the first cook. It turned out phenomenal. The problem was with the second cook when I tried to light the charcoal that was left over from the first cook. Lets just say that even leaving the chute top door and ball valve wide open barely got the coals going. I had to resort to pulling the grate, dumping all the coals and starting from scratch with a load of coals started in a chimney. Even with that, it took forever for the smoker to come up to temp (I was going for 250) and in order for it to get there, I had to feed it air using a pool toy air compressor to feed the ball valve. When I loaded it with the food (I did a big cook), the temp dropped dramatically and again, I had to be my own GURU, DIG IQ etc. and feed air into the ball valve throughout the entire cook (very frustrating). Having said that, the comments from all was, and I agree, that it was the best tasting ribs, pulled pork and pork tenderloin that I have ever done. That brings me to today with my borrowing a DIG IQ from a friend on the advice from this forum. I made sure to clean out the old ash and coals from the previous cook but figured using the DIG IQ I could load the hopper and start it that way. Well, long story somewhat shorter, it took two hours for the cooker to get to temp (250). When I loaded it with six racks of ribs, the temp dropped to (150). The DIG IQ was trying its best with its little fan to get it going again, but it was a no go. I had to resort to the much higher fan speed of the pool toy compressor. It still took 30 minutes to get back up to temp. Now I'm at 250 and with the DIG IQ it is holding its own (for now). Unless someone can tell me that I'm doing something wrong or there was a piece of metal or something that should have been removed during shipping for proper air flow, I'm going to have to reluctantly send mine back as well. Sorry for the long post.

I have this smoker also. Get the thermoworks billows with fan system or the fireboard 2 drive with fan unit. These are the best 2

Jeffery Rhodes The temp is very consistent but I think extra moisture would probably be good. I’ll use a water pan when I do a butt or a brisket

@@MadScientistBBQ I got the brazos based off your video recommendation. Have been very pleased with it but curious if there is a mod to put a shut off drain to the grease drain stem so I can fill the bottom with water. Do you know of any good sir. By the way from MO hickory for the win!😎

@@jefferyrhodes2346 I have a Brazos. Get a 1 and 1/4" ball valve , can find them cheap on Amazon, and a cheap one works fine for our purposes.

@@lynndollar1013 thanks!